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Friday, September 27, 2013

Controversy over conditions for unskilled and semi-skilled
workers in Qatar involved in the construction of World Cup-related
infrastructure as well as for flight attendants of Qatar Airways, the 2022
tournament’s likely official carrier, has moved center stage as world soccer
body FIFA prepares to debate next week the Gulf state’s hosting of the 2022 soccer
tournament.

FIFA’s focus is on whether to move the tournament from summer
to winter because of Qatar’s harsh summer temperatures that can exceed 40
degrees Celsius. FIFA however will find it difficult to maintain a narrow
concern for the welfare of players with no regard to the army of workers
involved in constructing billions of dollars in World Cup-related
infrastructure. Beyond reputational damage, the debate over workers’ rights and
conditions increases the risk of FIFA being pushed to entertain depriving Qatar
of its hosting rights, a move that would be perceived by much of the Muslim
world as anti-Arab and anti-Muslim.

International trade unions have for the past three years
threatened a boycott of the World Cup if Qatar failed to improve labor
conditions and accept workers’ rights to form independent trade unions and
collectively bargain. The issue has taken on added urgency with a report in The
Guardian that asserts that 44 workers had died in work-related incidents
between June 4 and August 8 and that workers had not been paid, had their
passports confiscated by employers, been denied access to free drinking water
in the desert heat, and that 30 Nepalese had sought refuge at their embassy in
Doha to escape the brutal labor conditions.

Adding to Qatar’s problems, the International Transport
Workers’ Federation (ITWF) lambasted this week Qatar Airways, the country’s
national carrier, as well as United Arab Emirates carriers Emirates and Ettihad
for prohibiting employees from organizing and demanding better working
conditions. ITWF said it would lobby the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO), which is meeting in Canada to take action against the Gulf
carriers. The union objects to stipulations in Qatar Airways contracts that
oblige employees to obtain company permission before changing their marital
status and entitle it to fire women employees as soon as they become aware of a
pregnancy.

Union objections on the grounds that Qatar bans independent
labor organizations forced the Gulf state earlier this year to withdraw its
proposal to move ICAO headquarters from Montreal to Doha. Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker was
quoted by Arabian Business as saying at the time: “If you did not have unions you wouldn’t have
this jobless problem in the western world… It is caused by unions making
companies and institutions uncompetitive and bringing them to a position of not
being efficient. If you go and ask the politicians in most of the countries in
the western world they would love to have the system we have: where the workers
have rights through the law but they do not have rights through striking and
undermining successful institutions that provide jobs to their knees.”

Qatar Airways was last year the target of an online call for
a boycott by hundreds of Qataris who objected to its employment policies as
well as the fact that it operates a shop in Doha that sells alcohol and pork to
foreigners.

Qatar has responded to international criticism of its labor
conditions by seeking to improve working and living conditions, including
stricter enforcement of timely payment of wages, limiting the number of workers
permitted to live in one room, planning a city for foreign workers who account
for 94 percent of the Qatari workforce and enhancing leisure opportunities,
including the creation of a soccer league for foreign workers.

The Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee that is responsible for
organizing the World Cup issued a Workers’ Charter earlier this year that
pledged to meet international standards with the exception of the right to
independent trade unions and collective bargaining. Qatar Foundation, the
institution that funds educational and social projects, is working on a similar
charter. It is also looking at streamlining recruitment to cut out middlemen
and agents that charge onerous rates and are responsible for workers’ huge debt
burden.

In a response to The Guardian story, the 2022 committee
said: “Like everyone viewing the video and images, and reading the accompanying
texts, we are appalled by the findings presented in The Guardian's report. There
is no excuse for any worker in Qatar, or anywhere else, to be treated in this
manner. The health, safety, well-being and dignity of every worker that
contributes to staging the 2022 FIFA World Cup is of the utmost importance to
our committee and we are committed to ensuring that the event serves as a catalyst
toward creating sustainable improvements to the lives of all workers in Qatar.”

Qatari executives note that one offset of the awarding of
the World Cup is the fact that workers’ rights and working conditions are on
the table and that steps are being taken to address the situation. “While
construction on work relating directly to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar has
not yet commenced, we have always believed that hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup
in Qatar could be the catalyst for positive change, particularly for
accelerating human and social development in Qatar,” the 2022 committee said. The
committee said the government was investigating companies identified in The
Guardian report.

Qatar has so far however refrained from steps to abolish the
onerous Kafala or sponsorship system that makes employees virtually beholden to
their employers a step that could convince trade unions and human rights
activists that it is serious about reform. The Guardian report signals that on
many of the issues such as timely payment, return of passports after completion
of immigration procedures and access to water, Qatar is lagging in enforcement
rather than in legislation and regulation.

The unanswered question is why Qatar has failed to tackle
the Kafala system head on and allowed it to fester. Writing in Open
Democracy, Michael Stephens, a researcher at the Royal United Services
Institute (RUSI) Qatar, noted that a majority of Qataris acknowledge that their
country’s labor system is in desperate need of reform. Kafala, moreover, is
disliked not only by employees but also by many employers because it makes them
liable for whatever the worker does during and outside of working hours. Mr.
Stephens argues that authorities understand the need for change but are not
giving it the priority required to stop further damage to Qatar’s reputation.

Yet, at the same time, he concedes that conservative forces
and at least some business circles oppose abolishing kafala. “Business
interests are often the hindrance, and the young Emir, like his father will
need to work hard to combat those companies, including many western entities
that accept and propagate the system that stands against the interests of a
majority of the country, local and foreign alike,” Mr. Stephens wrote referring
to 33-year old Sheikh Tamim bin Khalifa Al Thani who became emir in June after
his father, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, abdicated.

A recent study by researchers of Weill Cornell Medical
College in Qatar concluded that the cost of maintaining the labor system went
beyond reputational damage. The researchers concluded that Qatar would be near
the top of the United Nation’s Human Development Index (HDI) if adjustments
were made for the country’s large population of migrant workers. With other
words, the system undercuts Qatar’s soft power effort designed to project the
Gulf state as a cutting edge, 21st century knowledge-based society.

James M. Dorsey
is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies,
co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the
author of The Turbulent World
of Middle East Soccer
blog.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile